posted 07-27-2007 02:57 PM
During the STS-117 mission, there was apparently a new pictorial postmarker being used at the Houston downtown post office.

It reads "Astronaut EVA Station" and shows an astronaut during an EVA. It has a mobile datebridge and I have seen the dates of 8 and 10 June 2007. The cancel was not announced in the USPS Bulletin.

Does anybody know when and for what duration the device was used?

onesmallstepMember

Posts: 553From: Staten Island, New York USARegistered: Nov 2007

posted 09-05-2013 12:19 PM
I just discovered, while perusing the Espace Lollini online philatelic site, a cancel from the Houston PO for EVAs conducted from the ISS. It shows an astronaut wearing a US EMU suit in front of a station structure. This is in a different style from an earlier type of EVA postmark in use as late as 2009. Order details for sending covers are:

posted 09-05-2013 05:21 PM
The majority, if not all, of the recent space station and EVA-related pictorial cancels from the Houston, TX, area were suggested by Stephen Stein of W. Hartford, CT, with the postmark designs submitted by Deltev van Ravanswaay of Germany.

Robert PearlmanEditor

Posts: 27638From: Houston, TXRegistered: Nov 1999

posted 09-05-2013 05:36 PM

quote:Originally posted by eurospace:The cancel was not announced in the USPS Bulletin.

I was recently told by a USPS official that pictorial postmarks with changeable date devices are not listed in the Postal Bulletin.

Apollo-SoyuzMember

Posts: 877From: Shady Side, MdRegistered: Sep 2004

posted 09-05-2013 07:22 PM
Robert- What you stated in your last post is 100% right. I think the USPS (my employer) should notify collectors of new pictorial cancels regardless of fixed or interchangeable dates. What I think happens with the cuts that USPS is making, they are afraid the post offices would get inundated with requests which would take a long time to process with no overtime being used.